i2010- Underpinning Europe’s 21st Century Aspirations

What is I2010 ?

The
European Union’s i2010 initiative aims at providing teeth for the digital
economy of the future. Launched on June 1, 2005, i2010 is comprised of a
framework of regulatory instruments, research programs and industry
partnerships. Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner responsible for the Information
Society and Media, explains both the underlying context and vision behind
i2010. For many years, she said, “experts have been talking about digital
convergence of communication networks, media content and devices. Today, we see
digital convergence actually happening. Voice over IP, Web TV, online music,
movies on mobile telephones – all this is now reality. To enhance investment in
this promising sector of the economy, we must provide a coherent regulatory
framework for Europe’s digital economy that is market-oriented, flexible and
future-proof. And we must focus our research spending on key information and
communication technologies, such as nanoelectronics”.

Priorities: Social,
Economic, Industrial – and Existential

i2010 is accompanied by a new ICT plan for the EU. This seeks to
promote the use of information technology by governments and citizens in order
to improve industrial competitiveness, support growth, create jobs and address
new societal challenges across Europe. The EU Commission has set down three
priorities as part of this vision:

1. To create a Single European Information Space, promoting an
open and competitive internal market for information society and media
services.

For the period 2005-2007, the Commission proposed several action
plans in order to intersect the axes of “policy convergence” and “technological
convergence”. Specific topics covered are the modernisation of rules for
audiovisual media services, creation of a regulatory framework for electronic communications,
the securing of an Information Society – alongside means to make the management
of digital rights effective and interoperable. Priorities over subsequent years
include an assessment of policy needs for media literacy, approaches to RFID
and mobile TV, the development of high quality innovative content, actions in
the direction of security strategy etc.

2. To strengthen investment in innovation and research in ICT. At
only 80 Euros per capita, EU investment on ICT research pales in comparison to
Japan and the US, with figures of 350 and 400 Euros respectively. Such a
state-of-affairs made a strategic reappraisal of Europe’s position inevitable. These
efforts follow three broad pathways.

The first: to sharply boost European research funding through the
FP-7 Seventh Research Framework Programme (see Healthcare
IT Management Volume 2, Issue 1 for a detailed
overview). One of the key facets of this consists of means to better integrate
small- and medium-sized enterprises in EU research projects.

The second and third pathways consist of policies to promote eBusiness
as well as ways to buttress the efficiency of research policies and innovation.
During 2007-2008, key priorities here include a review of ICT standardisation,
an assessment of actions in the areas of eSkills and employability as well as
improvement in the quality and performance of public services and innovation.

3. To promote an inclusive European society, better public services
and quality of life by using ICT. The Commission’s efforts focus on an Action
Plan on e- Government for citizen-related services, with several steps taken in
2006.

For the period 2007-2008, the top issue on the Commission’s agenda
are three “quality of life” ICT initiatives – technologies for an ageing
society, smarter, safer and cleaner intelligent vehicles and digital libraries
to promote a European culture for all citizens. In order to prevent a “digital
divide” (resulting from unequal access to broadband Internet connections), the
Commission has put its weight behind a European initiative on e-Inclusion. Health
IT is part of the direct purview of programs aimed at e-Accessibility,
e-Government and of course e-Health interoperability.

All i2010 actions implemented between June 2005 and March 2007
have been compiled within annual reports on i2010 strategy. The 2006 balance
sheet has been widely considered to be positive. (CC)

i2010 and the Lisbon Strategy

Since
its inception, the Lisbon Strategy has acknowledged the central, and in some
senses, over-arching, importance, of IT. In March 2000, the Lisbon Summit of the
European Council established an ambitious raft of objectives aimed at higher
growth, more and better jobs and greater social inclusion.

In order
to build a meaningful knowledge society, a certain level of prosperity is
required to re-anchor the European social model in economic reality –
especially given demographic ageing and growing international competition in
what has been depicted as a Flatter World.

As part
of such thinking, it is accepted that more sustainable social systems require a
greater use of ICT for delivering more efficient public services and to reduce
their implementation costs. Indeed, the ICT sector is estimated to be
contributing almost one fourth of the EU’s GDP growth.

According
to EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding, “investment in ICT
accounts for about 40% of EU labour productivity growth over the second half of
the 90s. But it accounted for 60% in the USA, which shows that there is an
opportunity for Europe to do better, because recent evidence suggests that Europe’s
productivity gap with the USA is closely linked to the production and use of
ICTs”.

Consistent
with the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy, the i2010 initiative is expected to
result in more productivity, better capacities, new opportunities and increased
innovation.

Through
the Lisbon Strategy and in particular i2010, the European Commission has
identified the following areas as politico-strategic priorities:

î Updating of regulatory frameworks for electronic communications,
information society and media services, in order to exploit to the full the
internal market

î Stimulation of investment in strategic research to overcome
bottlenecks in the diffusion of ICT innovation

î Promotion of e-Inclusion and quality of life. On their part, EU Member
States were expected via the October 2005 National Reform Programmes to define Information
Society priorities in line with the Integrated Guidelines for growth and jobs.
Specifically, attention was directed at ICT uptake, ICT infrastructure and ICT
for jobs and education.

î These programs were targeted at:

î transposing the new regulatory frameworks affecting digital convergence
with an emphasis on open and competitive markets

î increasing ICT research in national spending

î developing modern and interoperable ICT-enabled public services

î using their considerable purchasing power as a force for innovation in
ICT

î adopting ambitious targets for development of the Information Society
at national levels.

i2010 Finincing

A key
question within i2010 concerns the European Commission’s financing of such
complex and ambitious projects. Several sources need to be mentioned in such a
context:

î 9.1 billion Euros via the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for the
period 2007-2013. The efforts are directly targeted at enhancing the competitiveness
of European industry, and led to the creation of this research theme, the largest
in FP7

î 755 million Euros, underwritten through the MEDIA 2007 program and
aimed at boosting the European film industry in the 2007-2013 period

î 728 million Euros from the ICT Policy Support Programme, which, once
again, runs throughthe period 2007-2013. These outlays are aimed at stimulating
innovation and competitiveness through the use of ICT

î 45 million Euros in investment for four years channelled through the
Safer Internet Program and aimed at combating illegal or harmful Internet
content.

i2010 High Level Group

On March,
20 2006, EU Member States, under the umbrella of an i2010 High Level Group, met
for the first time to discuss the future of the i2010 initiative. Established
by a Commission Decision and composed of one representative per Member State at
Director General level, the Group decided to work on key priority areas such as
convergence and content issues and ways to continue building trust and
confidence, aside from continuation of efforts in e- Government, e-Health,
e-Inclusion etc..

The
Group is also open to observers from both EFTA (European Free Trade Area) and
EU candidate countries. Its mission and mandate is to analyse strategic ICT
policy-related issues in the context of the i2010 initiative as well as the
wider spectrum of the Lisbon Agenda. Reviews and advice on the effectiveness of
the i2010 initiatives as well as the use of benchmarks to monitor the
implementation process are parts of its ‘to do’ agenda.

Conclusion

A key
theme anchoring the i2010 initiative is ‘convergence’. According to EU Commissioner
Viviane Reding, convergence is a process: it’s still happening, and there are
still huge opportunities. If we work together and invest in growth, we will
reap the benefits together. (CC)

Health-EU Portal for Healthier
Choices

Taking
responsibility for one’s own health is a fundamental challenge for EU citizens.

This is
a key reason for the launch of the Health-EU Portal in May 2006. It aims at raising
public awareness about health-related issues and providing information on
health developments and events across Europe. Its target group includes
healthcare professionals as well as scientists, policy makers and members of
the general public interested in health issues.

In the
initial stage, information on the Portal was restricted to English. However,
since the start of 2007, its content is provided in twenty official European
languages. The Health-EU Portal is an initiative of the EU Public Health
Programme 2003-2008. It is financially supported by the EU programme
‘Interoperable Delivery of European e-Government Services to Public
Administrations, Businesses and Citizens’. It also matches the aims of the
e-Europe Action Plan by providing citizens with simple, concise and
scientifically sound online information and promotes greater involvement of
both the public and private healthcare sectors.

The
Health-EU Portal has been structured into six thematic areas, which bring its
relevance to the doorsteps and into the day-to-day lives of EU citizens. The
themes are as follows:

Markos
Kyprianou, the EU Commissioner responsible for Health and Consumer Protection,
sums up the scale and scope of ambitions behind the initiative. The EUHealth Portal,
he notes, “is a very large project bringing together all EU Member States as
well as EFTA nations,international organisations and NGOs. Web surfers will have
access to over 40,000 links to trustworthy sources. The translation of the
Portal into all 20 official EU languages means that up to 1.5 billion people
worldwide can use it to help them to make healthy choices”. (CC)

What is I2010 ?<br>
The
European Union’s i2010 initiative aims at providing teeth for the digital
economy of the future. Launched on June 1, 2005, i201